Ten cheap street-eats in Budapest

We have earlier written articles about five hidden attractions in Budapest worth visiting and a list presenting some activities worth trying. Now it is time to feed our stomachs, so read on and get to know 10 places where you can have a cheap street-eat while walking the streets of Budapest.

1. Tamp & Bull

This is a special café in Budapest. In Tamp and Bull you can enjoy more than a normal espresso. Here you can find coffee with exotic spices and so much more. Besides them, dear guests can eat sandwiches, teas and delicious things but it is true, that this place is firstly the coffee lovers’ perfect place.
Address: 1093, Budapest. 3 Czuczor Street (Budapest, few minute walk from the Fővám Square, from the Szabadság Bridge’s Pest bridgehead to the Petőfi Bridge)

Tamp and Bull Budapest

2. Butter Brothers

Fantastic bakery with delicious products! Special, fresh, crunchy and first of all, the products are Hungarian, for example the famous quark bag, which is the best in the city. It is totally worth to taste!
Address: 1093, Budapest. 22 Lónyai Street (Budapest, few minute walk from Kálvin Square on the Lónyai Street)

3. Pervizaj Bakery

Because we are talking about bakeries, we have to talk about one of the most delicious Serbian bakeries in Budapest too. Giant bakery products, low prices, fast service, these are what Pervizaj offers you.
Address: 1137, Budapest. 32-34 Pozsonyi Street (Budapest few minute walk from the Jászai Mari Square, from the Margaret Bridge’s Pest bridgehead on the street of McDonald’s)

4. Ica Mama’s Meat Shop

After we became full with bakery products, we need to change to meat products. In Hungary there is a famous buffet type, the Laci Kitchen. These meat shops offer you cooked meat and place for eating. One of the bests of these buffets in Budapest is Ica Mama’s Meat Shop, which has a plus advantage; this buffet has made the same delicious profile for 50 years ago at the same place. Cheap and delicious lunch, especially for meat lovers!
Address: 1114, Budapest. 64 Bartók Béla Street (Budapest, few minute walk from Móricz Zsigmond Square)

5. Leves.

If you don’t have the mood for bakery products or meat, we can offer you a place, where you can eat great appetizer: soup. Don’t think these are just simple soups, these soups are specials with changeable spices. People get their soups in paper glasses, so they can eat it anywhere, even during walk.
Address: 1053, Budapest. 14 Vámház Street (Budapest, few minute walk from Fővám Square, from Szabadság Bridge on the Vámház Street)

6. Pasta.

After we ate our soup, we should continue our lunch with the second dish; however, we should stay with the same company. The Pasta., as the Leves. offers you special dishes in paper box, but of course it is not soup, it is pasta. Moreover the two buffets are very close to each other!
Address: 1053, Budapest. 2 Kálvin Square (Budapest, Kálvin Square, almost opposite to National Museum)

7. Zing Burger

If you like hamburger, but you are sick of the popular fast food restaurants’ offers; here is your time to try something new! The Zing Burger is a mobile buffet which appears in different points of Budapest day by day, and their supply is fantastic, huge, special and cheap! If you want to know the next station of Zing Burger is, follow them on Facebook!
Address: Budapest

Zing Burger

8. Finomító Kantin

This buffet is perfect place for an exhausted tourist. There is sandwiches, soups, burgers, coffee and drinks here with good prices, but the most important is that everything is fresh! The Finomító Kantin is very proud of this virtue. You definitely should visit it, when you are in Buda!
Address: 1027, Budapest. 33 Irén Street (Budapest, few minute walk from Széna Square)

9. The Donut Library

This is the island of peace in this fast city. Donuts here are made from only fresh ingredients without any additives or colorific. You can’t get soda-pops here, but a glass of delicious syrup or fresh milk is better with the donut, isn’t it? Besides the donuts, guests get books, so they have something to scroll while they eat.
Address: 1137, Budapest. 22 Pozsonyi Street (Budapest few minute walk from the Jászai Mari Square, from the Margaret Bridge’s Pest bridgehead on the street of McDonald’s)

10. La Pizza di Mamma Sofia

We can’t make a buffet compilation without pizza! In the La Pizza di Mamma Sofia one slice of pizza is only 350 Forint, huge and very delicious! The offer is amazing, sweat, salty, small, big, but there is one common thing: they are 100% Italian!
Perfect place if you only need a bite.
Address: 1061, Budapest. 20 Király Street (Budapest, Király Street in the center city)

Pizza in budapest

Well, we hope, you like our “Street Food” compilation. These places are all cheap, special and friendly, so choose any of them and you won’t be disappointed. If you have thoughts, comments, recommendations or any other thing to say, please write a comment!

Palinka and Sausage festival coming back in 2013

The dates have been announced for the Palinka and Sausage festival in 2013. Tradition is followed and the dates are only announced a few weeks before the actual festival. So also this year, so in less than two weeks the festival will come upon us and it is possible to taste a wide selection of Hungarian Palinka and taste traditional sausuage.

As always there will be a special guest coming to the festival, and in 2013 that guest will be “rum.” This means that as you come to visit the festival area you will get several chances not only to taste the traditional Hungarian food and fruit spirit, but also taste a wide selection of rums. The entrance fee is 2000 HUF for a day ticket, which also gives you a small tasting glass which is a quite nice souvenir to bring with you home after some days in Budapest.

The area for the festival is the castle area, so again a great opportunity to enjoy a beautiful panorama and visit one of the most visited areas combined with this festival, all in one!

Hungarian sausage

Read more about other Budapest events and concerts.

Beer and Blues festival in Budapest

This weekened there will be a Beer and Blues festival arranged in Budapest. The area is the Corvin quarter (Corvin negyed) which can easily be reached using the blue metro.

This festival is arranged for the first time in Budapest this weekend and on both Saturday and Sunday there will be great concerts, competition and events in the festival area which is just next to the Corvin shopping mall. There will be quite some micro breweries represented at the festival, but people can also taste Hungarian wine, palinka and of course traditional food meanwhile listening to blues music at the festival.

beer and blues festival

Blue and Beer Festival 2013

Dates: September 26th and 27th

The official programs will take place between 16.00 and 22.00 on the two festival days. Entrance to the area is of course free!

The most famous artist performing is Big Daddy Wilson. Come and join this great initiative.

5 activities you must try while in Budapest

There are lots of compilations about what tourists have to see while in the capital of Hungary, Budapest. This article would like to give advices about what you should do, try or taste in the most amazing city of Eastern Europe.

1. Hungarian gastronomy / Langos

GastronomyFirst of all we would like to mention the Hungarian kitchen. I am sure everyone has heard about the Goulash soup. But you need to know that the Hungarian kitchen is not only about Goulash, there are better and better soups, main courses, desserts and snacks too. What you definitely should try is ‘lángos’. This traditional meal is the Hungarian pizza. Originally it is a circle shaped dough made in plenty of oil, they put garlic, sour cream and/or cheese on it. Nowadays there are lots of versions; you can get pizza lángos, gyros lángos, bacon lángos and more. If you are in Budapest and run into a buffet where they sell lángos, do not miss it, taste this delicious meal.

2. Danube Cruise

Another activity that will let you see the most basic sights of Budapest in a delightful way is a boat trip on the Danube. In Budapest there are a lot of fantastic attractions, and these are mostly located at the two sides of the Danube. Tourists can watch these walking on either the Buda side or on the Pest side, but there is a way that is much better, a Danube Cruise. You can read more about it on this website if you click here. From the famous international river there is fantastic view to both side of Budapest. The best time for this program is at the evening, when the sun goes down and Budapest’s light are on.

Like this article? Read about the Top five attractions in Budapest or read about five hidden treasures in Budapest.

3. Taste Hungarian drinks

Hungarian beerOur third recommendation relates to gastronomy enjoyments again. As most people know, Hungary is famous for its drinking culture. The Hungarian beers, wines and short drinks have worldwide fame. Dutch young people usually come to Budapest from the home of Heineken, because they enjoy the Hungarian beers more than their own. Nowadays several pubs make their own home made beers, which are very delicious and not too expensive: you can buy half liter for a price between 200 Forint and 1000 Forint (check out our Brewery Tour if this sounds cool). We need to talk about Hungarian wines too. The closest wine area to Budapest is Etyek, and this is the youngest wine region too, moreover the home to the grapes behind the most famous Hungarian champagne, Törley. Those who like strong drinks, have to try the Hungarian national drink, pálinka. This short drink made from every fruit what you can imagine, Hungarian people usually used to say: “If you can make jam from a fruit, you can make pálinka too.”. Consume it with responsibility, because it is a strong drink.

4. Visit a ruin pub

If you want to find the best place for the third point, the fourth point can help a lot. In Budapest there is a special pub type, the ruin pub. The point is that they made safe night clubs from little bit ruined, old buildings, but they left the abandoned feeling of them. These are perfect places for a drink, a good chat with friends or maybe to meet up with new people. Most ruin pubs can be found in the seventh district of Budapest, close to the Synagogue (Zsinagóga). Moreover, you can read about some of them in our website, if you click here.

Ruin pub in Budapest
Picture from RomKert in Budapest, one of the famous ruin pubs

5. Do a wine trip to Etyek

The fifth and last recommendation, what you should try while in Budapest is wine tasting in Etyek. As we mentioned in third point, Hungarian wines are famous in the entire whole world and Etyek is a very upcoming region. If you contact us, you could have an unforgettable wine tasting experience in Etyek. On such an excursion you will meet a local wine maker, see the production area, get to know how it all started and the challenges they face in the every day life, and of course – taste the best wines from their production. Etyek is first of all a white wine area, so you will mostly taste whites, but do not be surprised if a rose or a red wine should be presented as well!

We hope you liked our compilation presenting five activities you must try while in Budapest. If you don’t want to spend your whole vacation in museums, choose one or more from the list and you won’t be disappointed! Have a great time!

If you like this article, please press a like and share it with your friends on Facebook, Google+ or at Twitter!

Public transportation tickets at Budapest Airport

Transport tickets at Budapest airportUntil know you have only been able to buy a very limited amount of public transportation tickets at Budapest Airport, but that is about to change.

Last week I noticed a temporary stand that has been placed in Terminal 2A where visitors can buy quite a lot of different public transportation tickets such as 1-day card, 3-day card, 7-day travel card, some group cards and single tickets. This is a great improvement, because earlier you had to buy single ticket at the airport and travel to Köhanya Kispest, and only there you could buy a one day pass, three day pass or a pass for one week.

At the moment this is a temporary stand, but as I asked them they said that in a while they will get a permanent stand looking nicer with an even larger amount of tickets for sale. So, if you want to travel from Budapest Airport using public transportation instead of a private airport transfer, then this makes it a whole lot easier.

Change in taxi prices from Budapest Airport (and in the rest of Budapet)

There are lots of changes taking place in the taxi business in Budapest. The most visible change is that more and more taxis are turning yellow. Another change is that fares are going up.

Until now visitors coming to Budapest just jumping in a taxi at the airport would get a set fee based on what area of the city they were going to, at least if they used the official Airport Taxi company named Fő Taxi. Due to the changes this has now changed, and you will not be able to know the price of your ride to your Budapest hotel before you actually arrive, because how much you pay is based on the length of your ride in kilometer and in time. The fee you pay per kilometer and the initial fee for just jumping into a taxi has also been raised. The new initial fee is 450 HUF and the new kilometer fee is 280 HUF.

Taxi in Budapest

For you as a tourist this means that traveling with taxies in Budapest has gotten more expensive, but do not be afraid, it is still cheap (if you are not tricked). As you come to Budapest Airport your taxi towards the city center has also gotten more expensive, maybe with 1500-2000 HUF compared to earlier. This means again that our fares for prebooked and private airport transfers cost exactly the same as if you just jump into a taxi at the airport, however you will know the price beforehand and you do not have to fear that you are being tricked by a driver taking slow roads, standing in lines on purpose and so on.

Enjoy your taxi ride and enjoy Budapest.

Five secret attractions in Budapest worth visiting

Of course, these places aren’t secret, but not everybody knows about them. This means that they are not crowded, so you and your family can walk in peace without being bothered by crowds of people. If you like visiting such attractions, but don’t want to go far from the center of Budapest, then you should read this article about these five secret attractions in Budapest worth visiting.

1. Philosopher’s Garden

Philosopher’s GardenThe first on our list is the Philosopher’s Garden. This attraction is closer than you think; it is located on the other, not too-visited side of the Gellért Hill. The approach is easier than it sounds like, you just need to go to Pest bridgehead of the Elisabeth Bridge, where you can find a bus stop (8,112) and go one station with it to Sánc Street. From here you need to walk a little on the street with the same name as the bus stop and the Philosopher’s Garden is immediately on the left side. The little green place got its name from the statue group, which image the world’s most famous philosophers in one circle. Visitor could meet with the statue of Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed, and Gandhi too. Besides this we can’t forget the fantastic panorama which shows the whole capital.

2. Normafa

The second is the Normafa, which is a huge and beautiful place on the Buda side. The approach is not complicated neither, you just need to go with the bus 21 or 21A from Széll Kálmán Square, exactly from Várfok Street. Be careful, the 21’s bus final station is not the destination that you are looking for, check the station list. From the Normafa station it is just half minute and you suddenly see the panorama of the capital from Buda perspective. There is everything here: buffet, strudel, kindergarten, nature and peace.

Do not forget to read our article about the top five attractions in Budapest.

3. Feneketlen tó

The third on the list is the Feneketlen Lake. This artificial lake located a little bit out of the center, but it is still easy to get here, because it is just five minute walk or one stop with tram 61 from Móricz Zsigmond Square. You can walk around the little lake, lie down on the grass, there are duck food machines and the most important: green is around you. Moreover there is a great restaurant near to the Feneketlen Lake, the Hemingway Restaurant. Besides this there is a fantastic kindergarten next to Feneketlen Lake.

4. János Hill Lookout Tower

 János Hill Lookout TowerThe fourth is the János Hill Viewpoint. We firstly recommend this place for those who like hiking. The easiest way to reach the János Hill Viewpoint is from Normafa by foot with the help of hiking signs; you can read about these more on the external tables. If you reach the little bit sweaty but beautiful trip’s destination, you just need to climb stairs to see the breathtaking view. You can see everything from this place! Of course there is a buffet here too, so you can have a little rest and a drink after the “mountaineering”. The most special and easiest runoff from the hill is with the Libegő (Chairlift). Underway the whole city unfold in front of you.

5. Szent Istvan Park

Our fifth and last hidden attraction in Budapest what you need to talk about is the Szent István Park. This hidden place is perfect especially for families. The Park has two parts: a smaller with kindergarten and a bigger one, which is a beautiful garden with fountains and amazing flowers. The approach of this place is not complicated, you just need to go to Jászai Mari Square and it is just five minute walk on the street next to McDonald’s, the Pozsonyi Street, at the end of the walk you straightly run into the Szent István Park. Next to the Park there is a lovely restaurant, the Duna Park, here you can have an ice cream, a coffee or anything what you want. Otherwise the whole area is family friend and safe. There are lots of restaurants, pastry shops, café shop and lovely little shops in the district. Advantage for dog keepers; next to the Park there is a safely fenced and well equipped dog running too.

We hope, you like our list presenting five hidden attractions in  Budapest. This is a little bit different, a little bit more peaceful, than the crowd center city, but it could be an unforgettable experience for those, who visit one of the places.

Night in the Amusement Park

We recently got the sad news that the famous Amusement Park in Budapest will close. The park has been open since 1950, but now the area will turn into a part of the Budapest Zoo. But, before it park wants to go down with a bang, so in all of September we can enjoy a “night in the amusement park.”

Vidam ParkWhen the Sun goes down, the city lights are turned on and that is when life starts in the City Park. That is why you can visit the amusement park in all of September from 8 PM until 1.30 AM.

The Night Amusement Park’s ticket prices are a little bit more favorable than during daytime. Those, who buy their ticket after 8 PM have to pay only 3300 Forint instead of the original 5000 Forint, and they can enjoy the flickering lights and popular toys. Moreover you can buy the night tickets earlier than 8 PM, so you don’t have to spend neither a second from your precious night time at the Amusement Park in the line.

If you spend some days in the Hungarian capital, Budapest in September 2013, you definitely should visit the Amusement Park until you can and make this visit more special with the night’s atmosphere and lights. Don’t miss this adventure! Have fun!

Wine festival opening today

From today (Wednesday) until Sunday the International Wine Festival of 2013 will be arranged in Budapest. Following the tradition from 2012 the first day is grey with rain in the air, but that should not keep anyone from visiting this interesting festival.

In 2013 the subject of the festival is Women and Portugal. In general the topic does not really influence the festival to much, except from the fact that there will be a corner or an area inside the festival area where you can get to taste quite a lot of wine from Portugal, so that can be interesting.

Some practical information about the festival

wine festivalThe entrance fee to the festival is about 2700 HUF. You will then get a wine glass which you can use inside the festival area. If you plan on visiting the area for more than one day you can of course buy a festival pass valid for the entire festival period.

At the festival you can taste thousands of different sorts of wine and this is a great place if you want to get a basic introduction to Hungarian wines, and inside the area you can of course taste some of the best kinds of Hungarian wines as well.

As always the festival is arranged in the Castle area, in front of the Castle, behind the Castle and in the backyard of the Castle.

Enjoy!

You can read a report from the Wine festival in 2012 in the Budapest blog if you wonder what the festival is like.

The Illusionists in Budapest

Now you see me, now you can’t! This is a great magician quote, and after that it is time for magic. I November the show named the Illusionists will come to Budapest and for three days they will amaze people as they perform in the SYMA Csarnok in Budapest.

The illusionists Budapest

The initiative to collect the world’s best magicians to one group popped out from two American producers’ head. The members are Italian, American and English and everybody has a special ability. There is mentalist, escape artist, wizard and inventor too. The Illusionists’ world premiere was in 2012 at the Sydney Opera House and it had huge success. After that the world’s number one magician group has captivate Australia, Asia and America; now they will visit to Europe to charm the audience here too. This is actually a big achievement, because this type of entertaining wasn’t too popular out of Las Vegas. These talented magicians have already charmed the legendary David Copperfield too.

However it is true, the November end date is not exactly a travel time, but we warmly recommend you the Illusionists’ show between 22 and 24 November 2013 at the SYMA Arena in Budapest. The overwhelming show would be great fun for adults and children too! Have fun!

The Illusionists Budapest

November 22nd, 23rd and 24th
Syme Csarnok

Budapest events and concerts